1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to receptacles generally and to retortable containers, in particular.
2. Description of the Related Art
Processes and devices for producing plastic containers of either a monolayer or laminated multilayers providing barriers to both gas and moisture are old and well-known in the food packaging industry. Conventionally, such processes include the steps of extruding sheets of plastic material, cutting blanks or billets from such sheets, heating the material to a desired temperature range, and pressure forming the material into food or beverage containers. Thereafter, the containers are sealed so that the contents may be stored for extended periods of time without spoilage.
Exemplary prior art methods and apparatuses were developed by the Shell Oil Company and patented between 1970 and 1986. Generally, this technology is known as solid-phase pressure forming (SPPF) because the container is formed under pressure while the plastic blank is hot but still in its solid (unmelted) phase. An exemplary nonretortable container made by this so-called SPPF technology was protected by U.S. Pat. No. 3,606,958 which issued on Sept. 21, 1971, in the name of Paul M. Coffman, and which was assigned to the Shell Oil Co. of New York.
The preferred method and apparatus used in SPPF technology extrudes plastic in long, thin (generally 0.030 to 0.100 inches) sheets for subsequent processing. However, SPPF technology is limited to forming containers while the plastic blanks are still in their solid phase, i.e. at temperatures below the crystalline melt point of the material.
The solid to liquid (melt) transition takes place over a temperature range for each particular polymer. A calorimeter will measure the heat input required to raise the temperature of a sample of the material. The latent heat required to melt the material can be measured and it will be noted that melting begins at a certain temperature and continues over a wide temperature range. A majority of the melting will occur at a particular temperature noted by a peak on the differential Scanning Calorimeter curve. This temperature is commonly referred to as the "melting point". The range for polypropylene may be from 240 to 340 degrees Fahrenheit (F) with the "melt point" peak at 330 degrees F. SPPF technology is practiced normally at 320 to 328 degrees F.
Heretofore, it has not been practicable to package and process many commodities, particularly those containing bulk solids, in thermoformed plastic containers because the containers could not withstand the combination of pressures and temperatures in a retort chamber without undergoing significant distortion.
SPPF technology requires that the temperature of the plastic materials during the thermal pressure forming stages remain in a domain generally 5 to 20 degrees F below the melting point of the plastic. Thermal pressure forming of the plastic material in this temperature range insures that the material is soft enough to be formed into containers but that such plastic material does not reach the melt phase, at which point severe handling problems start to occur. Such containers are generally not retortable.
Other exemplary prior art methods and apparatuses were developed by the Dow Chemical Company and patented between 1973 and 1977. This technology is generally known as the Scrapless Forming Process (SFP) in which containers are formed from square "chips" cut from an extruded plastic sheet. The square chips are first forged into circular discs (for circular containers), which discs are then formed under pressure into containers. No scrap is generated in the process steps from cutting the chip to forming the container.
Containers produced using SFP technology have also been found to be unsatisfactory for retorting because here also the forming process is essentially the same as SPPF technology in that stress relaxation, effected by the elevated temperatures and pressures of a commercial canning retorter, will cause unacceptable deformation of containers. Furthermore, SFP technology requires that the billets or chips be lubricated prior to the forging step. Though necessary for the Scrapless Forming Process, the use of lubricants is undesirable for containers intended for the storage of human foodstuffs.
The prior art specifically acknowledges a marked tendency of melt-phase plastic billets or blanks to deform during heating and the serious handling problems that occur if the plastic blanks are heated above their melting points. Thus, it remains a problem in the prior art, particularly in SPPF and SFP technologies, to produce a plastic container which can be used in a commercial canning retort process without becoming distorted to an undesirable extent.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a primary purpose of the present invention to provide a retortable plastic container which is a substantial unobvious improvement over the nonretortable plastic container covered by U.S. Pat. No. 3,606,958 of Coffman in that, unlike the Coffman container, the present invention can survive in a commercial canning retorter without significant unacceptable distortion. In such retorts, containers and their contents of food or beverage are subjected to elevated temperatures (approximately 260 degrees F) for an extended period of time such that harmful microorganisms therein are killed.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a retortable plastic container into which food, beverages, or other consumable contents may be first placed and sealed after which both the container and its contents may be heated within a retort chamber to approximately 260 degrees F without evidencing significant permanent distortion of the container.
It is another object of the present invention to manufacture a retortable plastic container being capable of competing with metal cans and glass jars in the food canning industry and also being capable of surviving radiation in a microwave oven without undergoing significant and permanent distortion.
The inventor is aware that plastic containers, particularly those manufactured by SPPF and SFP technologies, are severely prone to deformation during the process of retortion. The process of extruding a molten plastic into a single or multilayered sheet causes a polymer orientation that on cooling induces internal stresses within the plastic material. Such internal stresses may vary in intensity within the extruded sheet. Furthermore, the subsequent heating step in SPPF technology, in which the heated billets or blanks remain in the solid phase, does not effectively relieve these internal stresses, even though the blanks are heated sufficiently to facilitate forming. Thus, it is necessary to heat the plastic blanks above the crystalline melting point in order to effectively relax or relieve the internal stresses introduced by the sheet extruding step.
Furthermore, the inventor has noted that the problem of handling plastic blanks while in the melt phase has not heretofore been satisfactorily solved. The prior art technologies have acknowledged that plastic at or above its crystalline melting point is very sticky and tends to undergo reversion or other changes in shape as the internal stresses are relaxed. Thus, any process or apparatus using plastic blanks at or above the melting point must either avoid these undesirable qualities or somehow mitigate their effects in order to form a retortable plastic container.
These and other objects of the present invention will be more fully understood from the following description of the drawings and the preferred embodiments.